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Quick, unique gameplay in Clash Royale

The fourth game of Supercell, Clash Royale, was released on March 2, 2016, and it has been the most successful game by the company since Clash of Clans.

In Clash Royale, players are ranked by their level, trophies and arena. The maximum level of the players is thirteen, and there are ten arenas in total. The player wins a battle by destroying more towers than the opponent, or by destroying the opponent’s “King’s Tower,” which automatically grants a win. At the start of the game, players are given a random hand of four cards from a deck of eight pre-chosen. There are variety of cards — from spells to buildings to troops — and each has its own unique qualities. To play the cards, the player must have enough elixir; one elixir takes 2.8 seconds to replenish and when there is only one minute left in the round (three minutes total), the players get double elixir, in which one elixir replenish at 1.4 seconds.

The player will receive a chest after winning each battle. The most common chests are silver and golden chests, and the rarer chests are the giant chest, magical chest and super magical chest. All chests contain cards and gold, but different types of chests give more money and more rare cards. There are also free chests, which give the players a small amount of money and gems, but only come every four hours. Crown chests unlock once the player gets 10 crowns from battle (player earns crowns from destroying their opponent’s towers).

Compared to Clash of Clans, Clash Royale doesn’t require a person to constantly train troops to battle and the only wait times involve opening chests. There are more characters in Clash Royale and some troops from the game have been incorporated into Clash of Clans. Upgrading troops in Clash Royale is instantaneous, whereas in Clash of Clans, it can take two weeks to upgrade one troop. I prefer the instant upgrades because it allows me to get back into battle very quickly and because Clash Royale gets new characters first, I would rather play Clash Royale to get the experience first.

The game is extremely quick-paced: once I look away, it can cost me the win. Common matches last three minutes and one minute into overtime, but friendly battles among friends last three minutes but two minutes and 30 seconds into overtime.

These quick-paced common matches are great for passing time; however, these can also be very frustrating. The matchmaker does not set a limit of level within an arena so I could be facing someone three levels higher than me in a low-leveled arena. This allows the opponent to dominate easily and causes me to feel upset because of the unfair matchmaking. Because of constant losses, I just give up in frustration and eventually stop playing altogether. Also, many players spend real currency in-game to attain higher level troops and rarer cards, which helps them push for the top of the local or international leaderboards.

Besides common matches, Supercell added a tournament feature three months after the initial release of the game. There are two kinds of tournaments: The Grand Challenge, which costs 100 gems to join, but the maximum reward is a total of 22,000 gold and 1,100 cards, and the Classic Challenge, which costs 10 gems to join but the reward is only 2,000 gold and 100 cards. Anyone can participate, but there is no skill boundary. In tournaments, every player’s level is reset to nine — even if they are actually above the level or beneath the level. The troops are also reduced to a certain level based on their rarity, so players battle on equal footing. However, because there is no skill cap, it is possible for a player who is just level eight (common match) to battle against a player who is level 13. Even when the troops are the same level, the higher-leveled player will have more experience and dominate his opponent with experience.

The game can eventually get repetitive as I continue to use the same deck over again and there is no real end goal of the game. I just continue push for higher trophies and try to beat my previous trophy high.

Of course players can switch out decks, but in order for another deck to be as effective as the main deck, it has to be leveled up, which can cost excessive amounts of gold.

Overall, Clash Royale is an exciting, action-packed game for all age levels. The game may sometimes be unbalanced and repetitive, but it never fails to surprise with new card unlocks, unique rewards and constant developer updates.